I'm Home
by Miumarie
Summary: A very weary and uninspired college student gets a very warm surprise out of a very dark situation on her way "home."


*~* Hi everyone! I'm brand new to to this Fanfiction site...I'm a beginner writer but I really wanted to post some of my most recent fanfiction. I love anime and Karneval is one of my favorites, so that's what this little quickie centers around. This is less like the typical fanfiction I've read before - it's as random as it gets I believe - it came directly from a dream I had. Because of this it has extremely little relation to the actual plot of the manga. The dream itself left me with a very dreamy feeling - the very feeling Karneval seems to give off. In this little short story I attempted to capture that sensation as well as possible. *~*

~*~ The only characters I don't own are those of the main ones from Karneval - (Yogi is the only one in this particular little story). My character Meg is my own but the other characters aren't really important to me. They were just random people in the dream. ~*~

~~ And so without further babbling I present to you: "A Dreamy Dream"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meg dragged her heavy suitcases to the train station. Spring was in full swing - butterflies fluttered about around her and among the thick forest that grew tall up around the train tracks. The butterflies were mostly the little white and yellow ones, but around this particular area there seemed to be pink ones.

 _Not that it really matters,_ she thought to herself. Right now she found it difficult to take pleasure in anything.

The sun was bright and the weather was hot - unusually hot. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and switched suitcases into different hands. one was definitely heavier than the other. It was hard to drag them behind her on the dusty, dry, dirt road. Add her full back-pack, purse, and gym bag. But the biggest burdens couldn't be seen on Meg's outside.

When she reached the old train station, she only spotted a few people, but a pile of bags stood on the platform. It was a huge pile. How was she supposed to know where to put her things? She decided to just keep them with her for the time being and ask someone who knew when the train arrived. She sat down on one of her suitcases and stared at the old, corroded wood on the platform. An ant crawled out from one of the cracks and Meg just watched it as it crawled up over the tip of her boot and back down onto the wood. She didn't like ants, but she didn't feel much different than the poor thing. So small...and where were it's friends?

She had just come from college...and going into college she had carried nothing but her bags. Now she had left, dragging with her more than suitcases.

Unrequited love, failed classes, ridicule, abandonment, sickness...these were only some of the things she carried on the back of her heart, which was sagging down with exhaustion. She'd given up on confusion. She could never figure it all out anyway...why be confused? Apart from having God, she was alone. She had left her only few friends at college to return to a broken family...and to a world that had always seemed foreign to her. She'd always been different. There wasn't much expectation that things would be better in her hometown, because after living in the college world, she'd changed even more.  
Where did she belong? Back in that place everyone called her "home," or with the few friends she'd managed to make at college? Would she ever find a place to rest?

She was like the ant, alone...she was like the butterfly, up in the air, blown in whichever way the wind decided to blow.

The train whistle blew off to her left, and she looked down the track. The train was hidden around the curve by the thick maple and oak trees. When it finally did arrive, Meg forgot that she should not carry her suitcases with her in the train car. She was too tired to have remembered...

As she trudged up the steps, a man behind her placed his hand on her shoulder. "Excuse me, miss, but you have to take your bags to the baggage car."

Meg nearly burst into tears but forced every last string in her heart to hang on. "Oh...um, well...I'll go do that, then..."

"Move it, girl!" someone dressed as a worker in the train said. He had thick black eyebrows and a mustache. "Gimme your things! Whad'ya think you're doin'?" He snapped, grabbing Meg's suitcases.

"Uh - those -"

"Where they goin', huh?" he asked. "C'mon! We aint' got all day! Answer me!"

Meg felt tears appearing under her eyes. "P-Pennsylvania." She watched as the man took away her bags. The man behind her pushed past her, squishing her against the railing. She finally hurried herself inside the train car, but it was mostly full. Where could she find a place to sit? Finally she noticed a little space behind the last seat on the left. She hurried there and sank down onto the floor. She didn't care if anyone noticed her...she felt too tired and too sad to try to find a seat. She let her purse fall to the floor. It bounced once and landed in the middle of the walk way. With a sigh she reached out to pick it up. However, when she did, the train lurched a bit and the purse slid several inches up the aisle.

For a few moments she just leaned her head against the seat in front of her and stared at it. She knew she had to get it, but lacked the energy to care. She forced herself to reach out to get it back. All of a sudden, the person two seats ahead of her on the left snatched it up.

"Hey, that's mine..." Meg said half-heartedly.

The man and his friend laughed. "Hehe! This ugly old man purse yours? That's funny! You look like you're starving. Stealing a purse would be great for you, wouldn't it? Sorry, but we're not falling for that!" He then called the attendant. Meg's heart just about gave up when she saw that it was the man from before.

"What's going on here?" he said gruffly, making his way down the aisle. Meg stood up but the attendant grabbed her arm. "I can tell you're a trouble-maker! Leave those people alone and come with me!"

Meg really didn't think things could get any worse. What was going to happen to her? She lost her purse...now what? Would she be arrested for being a so-called thief?

The attendant pulled her to an open room at the back of the car, where she tripped and fell flat on the floor. "You stay here!" he growled, handcuffing her hands behind her back. Meg finally closed her eyes and let the tears just fall out of them. She heard something that sounded like an opening window and then felt something lightly bump her sides. Was it someone's shoes? She could sense vaguely that someone was leaning over her...doing something with the handcuffs.

The person was talking to her quietly, but she wasn't comprehending hardly even the sound. Suddenly the door opened with a bang and she was jerked back to consciousness. Someone, a tall and thin young man, was at her side, unlocking the handcuffs. Blonde hair? Green pants...

He stood up straight and turned to face the attendant. The backs of the young man's shoes pressed against Meg's side as he stood in between her and the angry attendant.

"Now where did _you_ come from?! Whad'ya think you're doin'!?" the attendant yelled.

"I've come to get my sister," the young man replied with determination. "Get between us and I will take action." Suddenly rapiers appeared in each of the young man's hands. He held them at his sides so that each blade blocked blocked from her head to her toes.

"Wh-who are you?" the attendant asked, suddenly fearful.

The young man raised his head and said with serious authority, "Circus Airship 2 Special Combat Personnel, Lt. Yogi."

"Circus?!" The man staggered, dropping the broom. He shivered and ran out the door.

 _Circus...what was Circus..._ Meg let the word register in her brain. As she did, Yogi grabbed her up in his arms and cut a hole in the ceiling with his rapier.

"Don't worry," he said with a comforting smile, "I'm finally bringing you home." And with that he leaped out of the train and jumped for the sky. As they streamed upward, suddenly the world below took on a brighter color for Meg. The butterflies, like an exploded rainbow, dotted the emerald green forest below, and the sky sparkled with a shade of blue that seemed incredibly new. And the body of the young man carrying her through the sky was warm, like the shining sun behind the clouds.

The tears fell away from her eyes like diamonds and her eyes opened wide when the two of them popped up into Airship 2.

"I'm home!" Yogi said. He set me down and smiled with wonder at me. "Go ahead and say it, cause you're finally home now!"

"Welcome home, Baa!" the sheep robots all said in greeting.

Meg stared past Yogi at the young individuals that stood just past the sheep. Was this her family? When they all smiled, she knew that they were.

"I'm home."

~~~~Thanks for reading! I hope it was enjoyable!~~~~

~~ Miumarie ~~


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